R2R Operational Insights: Simulating High-Speed Dynamics

A large international manufacturer of printing machines experienced high tension fluctuations within a buffer system that used a reciprocating high-speed cart. The resulting acceleration and deceleration of the rollers had a great effect on the web tension. Working with Maplesoft, their engineering team first gathered data from an existing machine, and used the MapleSim software to create an initial model of the system. They found that the yielded tension results in the simulation exactly matched their expectations. They used the model to find ways to reduce the tension variations, and the company has now included MapleSim simulations in all new machine developments.